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How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

Please join our global discussion group
every Tuesday at 12pm noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm Eastern time

This Tuesday, June 1 at the Epoch Institute in Second Life™

Click here to teleport to the Epoch Institute in Second Life™
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wells/97/56/27

This Week’s Topic

How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat

Some discussion topics flow easily. A “hot issue” appears in the news. An offhand mention of a thought-provoking idea.

Once in a while an topic appears that seems important, but is “off the radar” for most of us. Sometimes it’s so much a part of our daily routine that it seems commonplace, yet has the nugget of an interesting area to explore. How to Tell a Powerful Story in Text Chat is one of these topics.

We have become accustomed to communicating in text chat. This new medium is commonplace and seems familiar, yet in some ways is “all new”. Some people have figured out how to be storytellers, people who can engage our imaginations and keep us “hooked” to read as they type, not looking away or multitasking off to the next shiny, interesting browser window.

There is something subtly, yet importantly different about text chat compared to other electronic text forms, such as email, blogs and web pages. Text chat is interactive in a different, faster, and more spontaneous way. People see thoughts appear as they form. The bits of concepts show up as they are typed, rather than after careful editing of some longer form piece. At the same time, text chat feels like the longer form, traditional writing forms.

This week we’ll explore strategies for telling powerful stories in text chat, discuss how stories get rearranged and restructured to be effective in text chat form, and practice techniques for text chat storytelling.

Join us Tuesday at 12PM noon U.S. Pacific / 3pm U.S. Eastern time for an interactive discussion, and thanks for being part of “We Are The Network”!

If you do not have a Second Life account and would like a quick start to attend the session, please contact me for more information.

Best regards,

Joel

Reading links below – have fun and see you soon!

Ode: How to Tell a Great Story (Seth Godin – for marketers)
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/04/ode_how_to_tell.html

Ten Tips for Storytelling Success
http://homeschool-curricula.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_tell_a_great_story

How to Tell a Great Story
http://www.preachingtodaysermons.com/howtotegrst.html

The “Golden Girls” Guide to Telling a Great Story
http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8962-the-golden-girls-guide-to-telling-a-great-story

Great Story Telling: Plot vs Point
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/65634/great_story_telling_plot_vs_point.html

How to Build a Great Screenplay: A Master Class in Storytelling for Film
http://books.google.com/books?id=GLhKwdqICkMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=great+screenwriting

(Added) The Five Basic Stories that can Give Your Speeches Power
http://www.forbes.com/2010/05/12/public-speaking-stories-leadership-managing-speeches.html

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Please Note – Mixed Text and Voice Session:

We Are The Network is an open, mixed voice / text discussion session. Please feel free to participate in voice or in text, to your preference. The facilitator and some participants will be using voice, so you may wish to enable voice in your viewer so that you can hear the voice portions of the session.

To enable voice, choose Preferences from the Edit menu, click the “Voice Chat” tab along the left of the form, and then make sure that “Enable voice chat” is checked. Again, speaking is not required for this session, however if you do not enable voice, and use speakers or headphones, you will not be able to hear part of the discussion.

Thanks for attending!

Joel Foner (Second Life: Joel Savard)

http://joelfoner.com/about

http://twitter.com/JoelFoner